Champions Cup loss doesn't signal 'end of an era' for Leinster

Leinster face the Lions in the URC quarter-finals on Saturday but there is an acceptance the province can't brush over last weekend's loss against Bordeaux

Leinster attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal on defeat to Bordeaux: "I don't see it as the end of an era, I don't see us declining. It's just going to be a new challenge." Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Leinster's focus turns to the retention of their URC title this week but the fear among fans after last Saturday’s heavy Champions Cup final defeat is that the gap between the province and the Top 14’s finest has widened.

Bordeaux-Begles won pulling up in Bilbao. Leading 35-7 at the break, the eventual winners played in second gear after the break, which renders moot most of the diluted optimism over Leinster ‘winning’ the second period 12-6.

It’s now eight years since Leinster have won the tournament. The French have annexed Europe six years in a row. Add in Ulster’s pulverising at the hands of Montpellier in the Challenge Cup the night before and it’s a frightening vista.

From a point where they were losing finals on sport’s version of a coin toss, Leinster now look further away than ever after this reality check in the Basque Country and last season’s semi-final shock defeat at home to Northampton.

And all that on the back of three deciders lost in agonising fashion.

“So I know that the narrative is that we're getting further away but next year is going to be the same.,” said attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal. “We're going to rip in. It's not going to be easy to get out of the pool, you're trying to get home advantage and you're trying to get to the final.

“I can't answer that [whether the club is further away than before from the title] but we’re going to give it the best crack. I don't see it as the end of an era, I don't see us declining. It's just going to be a new challenge. We're going to have to attack it again, which we did this year.” 

Eager as everyone at the club is to concentrate on that URC quarter-final against the Lions at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, there was an acceptance that the events of last week would not wash away so quickly from the public discourse.

Bleyendaal saw the kernel of it all in the collisions where the French side were dominant. Another differential was in just how clinical the opposition was. And one more area of note he mentioned was in terms of energy.

“We just weren’t firing.” 

That last point may be the most worrying given it was the biggest game of the season.

“That's a difficult one, isn't it? It could be individuals, it could be as a team, it's preparation. We're looking at everything and we're still going to be looking at things, not just today… If it was that easy, you could address it, but I'm not sure it is.”